


Wrath of the Wind

by xwannaflyx



Series: Kishimoto Did the Girls Wrong [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF!Temari, F/M, Gaara is your little brother he doesn't want to hear love confessions, Gen, Kidnapping, being Hokage drives you to alcoholism, don't kidnap her boyfriend, slightly drugged sortof proposal, temari will fuck shit up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 06:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17462417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xwannaflyx/pseuds/xwannaflyx
Summary: Temari very much earned her bloodthirsty reputation before she ended up spending half of the year in Konoha pretending she wasn't super besotted with an equally besotted Shikamaru. Suna forgot about the whispers they used to have about the wind demon. They were forcibly reminded when some idiot kidnapped Shikamaru and Temari decided to play.





	Wrath of the Wind

**Author's Note:**

> written for day 5: bonds of Kunoichi Week 2019!

Temari very much missed going on bloodbath missions with her brother. It wasn’t that she minded peacetime or that she resented her brother’s present sanity but there was nothing like going on a mission knowing you were allowed to leave  _ absolute devastation  _ behind. She sighed and curled up tighter, snuggling under the kotatsu. The weirdest part about living in Konoha, she mused, was that she spent half the time freezing her extremities off. (Well, actually, she spent half the time buried as far under the kotatsu as decorum and physical mass allowed.)

“Temari!” Shikamaru called, entering the house with a rattle of the door. “Temari?” he called again before he entered their room and saw small tufts of blond hair peeking out from under the kotatsu covers. “Temari,” he stated, voice now amused. 

“It’s cold,” she whined, attempting to steal deeper into the covers. She yelped when she felt the shadows began to curl around her, tickling her sides. “Shikamaru!” she grumbled, sticking her face out to glare at her boyfriend. 

Shikamaru smiled, looking at his troublesome (but so worth it) girlfriend, flushed from the heat and frowning in irritation. “I have an envoy mission,” he said, crouching beside her. He pushed her bangs away from her face, unable to help the rush of warmth and fondness in his chest. “I’m headed to Suna. Do you have anything you want me to tell the Kazekage?” he asked. 

Temari scowled and sulked but properly crawled out from under the warmth. “I’m sure he won’t coffin you for calling him Gaara,” Temari pointed out, faintly amused. She pulled her hair into a quick ponytail and smoothed her kimono, “Give me a sec,” she called, standing and walking deeper into the house to find herself a scroll and pen to write with. Finding one, she scrawled a quick note asking about his health and teasing him about the rumors she was hearing in Konoha. Adding a quick note not to bully Shikamaru too much, she signed and sealed the scroll before handing it over. “Travel swiftly and safely,” she said fondly, leaning into to give him a quick peck on the lips. “And return to me,” she added seriously, meeting his eyes. 

“Always,” he answered, taking advantage of his superior height to drop a quick kiss on her forehead. “You didn’t tell Gaara to get rid of me because you’re bored, did you?” he added, joking. 

Temari snorted, settling back on her heels. “Like I wouldn’t get rid of you myself?” she asked dryly. 

Shikamaru laughed loudly and squeezed her hand one last time before picking up his pack and walking out the door. Temari smiled fondly after him before briskly shaking her head and deciding to prepare for the day. 

-x-

Gaara received his sister’s boyfriend professionally and calmly because he was a professional Kazekage. However, because Temari was his only sister and more importantly his  _ family, _ Kankuro was also hovering over his shoulder, scowling murderously at Shikamaru. “Hello Nara,” Gaara said calmly, extending a hand for Tsunade’s message. 

“Hello Kazekage-sama. Hello Kankuro,” Shikamaru greeted, passing Gaara the scroll without another word. Kankuro grunted, still scowling. 

Gaara silently opened the scroll and read the contents, humming in consideration at the report Tsunade had encased about some border skirmishes and the growth of missing nin reports in Konoha and Suna. He let out a grunt of annoyance and passed the scroll to Kankuro, nodding at his brother and knowing that Kankuro would increase the patrols among the jounin. “Thank you Nara,” he said calmly. He paused then offered only a little reluctantly, “Do you need to stay the night?”

“Naw, I should get back before I get yelled at,” he said dryly, scratching the back of his head. None of them decided to allow clarification as to who would do the yelling. “Do you have anything that you want me to pass to Tsunade-sama?” he added, shifting his weight. 

“No,” Gaara said with an easy shrug. He nodded in dismissal. Shikamaru did a short bow and before turning to leave, he gently pressed a small scroll stamped with Temari’s seal onto the table in front of Gaara before leaving the room. 

“Is she doing well?” Kankuro asked, peering over Gaara’s shoulder as he eagerly opened the scroll and read it. The letter was mostly about her time in Konoha with some mentions of Shikamaru and the letter finished with questions about how they were doing in Suna and how she missed them and Suna. “She seems like she’s doing well,” Kankuro added, scanning the scroll over Gaara’s shoulder, 

“I’m glad,” Gaara said a little flatly but he carefully rolled the scroll back up and gently stored it in his desk. 

Both Gaara and Kankuro put Shikamaru’s visit out of their minds (and Shikamaru’s association with their older sister even further out of their minds because yeah he was good to her and yeah she was happy but they were still her brothers for all that they had a healthy respect for her wrath and therefore would do nothing serious against it) until Gaara received a missive from an unmarked and definitely not village-associated messenger hawk. To be exact, Gaara received a rather grubby scroll with blood splatters from a frenzied, clearly rattled messenger hawk who was gently transferred for care while Gaara opened the scroll. The scroll contained one short message and a storage seal. 

Kankuro snatched up the scroll when he saw the seal and did a handful of quick safety checks on it, making sure it wasn’t a very sloppy attempt at throwing a bomb at the Kazekage. Gaara allowed it because mundane procedure tended to reassure Kankuro when words like “I alone could survive being at the center of an enormous explosion” and “it would take more than  _ that _ to scratch me” tended to not. Once scroll was deemed safe, Gaara took it back and attempted to read the message. 

“We hold the Kazekage’s sister-”

“Holy shit someone actually got Temari?” Kankuro demanded, squinting down at the message beside Gaara. 

Gaara squinted harder at the smear of blood, bringing the scroll closer to his face. “The Kazekage’s sister’s boytoy,” he finished, finally being able to read the message which really was in a sad state of affairs. “We...” he trailed off again. There was a reason he demanded neatness from the reports that Suna shinobi brought in. “I can’t read this,” he said with a sigh.

Plucking the message from Gaara’s hands, Kankuro glared down at the short message for a long while before clearing his throat. “We hold the Kazekage’s sister’s boytoy. We have sealed the hitman? Oh, no, sorry, the hitai-ate as proof of his capture. We will only release the boy in exchange of our captured cor-oh that’s a m.” Kankuro paused for a minute and stared harder at the scroll, “our captured comrades!” he said cheerfully, finally deciphering the handwriting. “Actions taken against us will result in ham.” Kankuro frowned thoughtfully, a little confused.

Reaching up, Gaara pulled down the message and squinted at the last word. “Harm. Actions taken against us will result in  _ harm _ . Do as we say, or else.” He hummed thoughtfully as he allowed Kankuro to take the message and briskly unseal the storage, coming back with a metal headband attached with a black scrap of fabric. 

The two stared at the message and the headband for a long while before sighing. “Do you remember what his headband looks like?” Kankuro asked finally, clear reluctance in his voice. 

“Not at all,” Gaara mumbled, rubbing his face tiredly. They both stared at the headband for a long while, turning it over in their fingers. “Ah, wait,” Gaara said quickly, flipping the headband to the back and feeling along the grooves at the center. He carelessly ripped off the fabric to reveal the metal backside which was etched with a design. 

“I have no idea what that’s supposed to be,” Kankuro finally admittedly, looking at the vaguely triangular shape. 

“Knowing Temari, it’s a tessen,” Gaara pointed out, turning the metal this way and that, trying to see what the etching was meant to be.

“That’s just a bad triangle,” Kankuro said a little incredulously. Gaara had to agree; it was clear that all the art talent in the family had gone to Kankuro because the supposed tessen really was just a lopsided triangle. 

“Regardless,” Gaara said, dismissing the topic and handing the metal to Kankuro, “we’ll send a message to Temari, Tsunade, and the missing nin gang to figure out what’s the plan.” He handed Kankuro the scroll as well, nodding at his brother and dismissing him to send a messenger hawk for Konoha. After his brother left his office, Gaara contemplated his desk before, in a rare moment of mischief, he picked up his brush and an empty scroll. Carefully, he penned his response to the missing nin gang, waited for the ink to dry, then rolled the scroll back up, preparing it to be sent to wherever the messenger hawk would go. 

_ I suggest releasing the prisoner before “or else” catches up to you. Regards, Lord Kazekage _

-x-

This is how Temari found out. Temari was having a lovely day working her way through all the paperwork that Shikamaru and she needed to finish for the Chuunin Exams when there was a swirl of leaves and a summons from the Hokage Office appeared on her desk. She grumbled about the cold then changed into her kimono, strapped on her tessen, and walked out the door, holding the summons in her hand. As she entered the Hokage Tower, she was dodged by three chuunins and one slowly sank to the floor already crying. When she entered the Hokage’s Office, Tsunade winced and handed over a missive from her brother. 

“Huh.” Her voice was flat but her hands gripped her tessen tightly, chakra beginning to wisp off her skin. 

“You have the mission. Get out of my office,” Tsunade said quickly because Tsunade wasn’t born yesterday and the village budget can’t take more repairs of her office. 

Temari politely thanked Tsunade, tightened her tessen strap and stalked out of the room, her expression promising pain. Again, chuunins scrambled out of her path as she marched through the tower then out into the street, heading back to the Nara Compound.

“Back already, Temari-chan?” Yoshino asked pleasantly, greeting Temari at the door. 

“Ah, no Yoshino-san,” she said, laughing sheepishly and getting a tight rein on her chakra. “I just received a mission.”

“Oh?” she asked, trailing back to the kitchen and deftly putting together some riceballs. “Did the Kazekage summon you?” 

Temari laughed again but the note of her laughter was all off. “No. Seems my favorite lazybones got kidnapped on the way back,” she said slowly, the smile on her face tight. 

Yoshino stared at Temari for a long time then calmly put together another three riceballs. “Well,” she said with a sigh, packing the riceballs away in a small package and adding a bottle of tea before sealing it all away neatly and handing the scroll of Temari. “That is unfortunate.” Temari laughed and shook her head, slowly rolling out her shoulders as she dug out and shouldered her travel pack. “Happy hunting!” Yoshino called cheerfully as Temari walked out the door.

“Oh I  _ will _ ,” Temari snarled, a bloodthirsty smile on her face. Yoshino waved cheerfully at her probable daughter-in-law and smiled. Shikamaru would be back home soon enough. 

-x-

The venerable Lord Kazekage, and more importantly the little brother of Temari no Sabaku “affectionately” called the Wind Demon by Baki-sensei, learned of Temari’s presence in Suna from the reports sent by his border patrol of the bloody and beaten survivors of missing nin gang “cleansings” that were happening in his protected lands. To be exact, Gaara wasn’t an idiot and put the fact that there were singular survivors from each infamous missing nin gang in his lands sprinting to Suna’s outposts begging for shelter from “that absolute crazy bitch oh my god she’s a  _ monster _ ” and a certain missing Konoha nin who Temari was very fond of and ended up with piles upon piles of paperwork to shuffle through and retroactively issued missions against the missing nin gang threats in Suna. 

“It’s Temari, isn’t it?” Kankuro said dryly, reading over his shoulder of yet another report of a blabbering survivor that begged shelter from some crazy monster with blonde hair carrying a giant tessen and smiling. “She could have at least told us she was coming over,” Kankuro grumbled, idly adjusting the straps of his puppet on his shoulder. 

“She basically did,” Gaara pointed out, reaching for a fresh sheet of paper and sighing as he wrote yet another mission backdated for the extermination of yet another missing nin group. 

“God, she’s going to make so much money once she’s done,” Kankuro mused, checking over the list of the dead for that particular missing group. “Ugh, she’s gonna beat me out for highest count on her next gang,” he added, carefully counting the names and adding together the numbers of the previous groups she had rather vengefully exterminated. 

“Yes, well, thankfully the majority aren’t Suna missing nin so I don’t have to worry about our coffers,” Gaara said, desert dry. 

Kankuro frowned. “You don’t really think she would demand payment from her younger brother for the bounty of a missing nin in the Bingo Book, do you?” he asked, thinking it through. Gaara stared at his older brother flatly. “Yeah you’re right,” Kankuro agreed settling deeper into his chair for a sulk, “she’d get all the highest bounties first out of spite.”

Gaara sighed and carefully signed and stamped the backdated and legally suspect mission form. “Perhaps she’ll at least visit us before she leaves,” Gaara said diplomatically. The two exchanged wry looks before Gaara dismissed his brother by turning to the next pile of paperwork he needed to complete.

“At least Konoha has to pay half,” Kankuro finally said with a sigh, taking the mission scroll to carefully file it without notice. Gaara let out a hum which was his equivalent of a delighted laugh at this thought. “Yep,” Kankuro said, cheered by that thought. “At least we only have to pay half,” he repeated, smiling suddenly before he stood and exited the Kazekage’s office. 

Gaara glanced down at the messy missive one more time to verify some facts. Carefully, he withdrew a map of Suna from the depths of papers and added another mark to the seven other marks that dotted the map. At the rate that Temari was going, he mused, Suna would suddenly have a distinct lack of work for its jounins and unprecedented easy out-of-village missions for a little while. 

-x-

“Here, little mouse,” Temari sang stepping into the cave of her tenth missing nin group and also the group that was holding Shikamaru hostage. “Let’s play a game,” she called, grinning fiercely into the darkness. There was a scratch against stone but no reply. She pouted and pulled her tessen from her holster, “Have it your way,” she called out before letting loose several large blasts of wind. There were cries in the darkness and she smiled, pleased. “Hello,” she greeted again, riding the wind deeper into the cave. 

“Stay back you crazy bitch,” the man snarled, hiding behind a half asleep Shikamaru and holding a kunai to his throat. “You get any closer and this idiot dies.”

“Hi darling,” she greeted, ignoring the man and his friends who are attempting to surround her for the time being. “I’m very disappointed in you, you know.”

Shikamaru yawned and became slightly less dead weight. “In my defense,” he drawled, shrugging a shoulder and causing the man holding him hostage to snarl and tighten his grip. “If I wasn’t dating you, I never would have been kidnapped.”

“And why you didn’t break free?” Temari asked, rolling her eyes and casually flicking out with her tessen to make sure the missing nin attempting to surround her stayed a healthy distance back. “We both know you knew how to leave within two days of getting kidnapped.”

Shikamaru threw her a wink with his non-swollen eye. “At that point it sounded like you were having a lot of fun and I do so hate to ruin your fun.”

“Lazy crybaby,” she shot back, unable to help the fondness in her voice. 

“Troublesome woman,” Shikamaru replied, the same undercurrent of fondness in his tone. 

“Well, are you going to complain about me rescuing you now?” she demanded, tightening her grip on her tessen and stabilizing her stance slightly as the missing nin began to grow restless. 

Shikamaru shrugged and shifted his weight slightly, clearly untroubled by the blade at his throat. “Only if you’re going to complain about it later.”

Temari smile fiercely and drew back her tessen. “Guess we’ll just both have to complain then,” she announced cheerfully before launching into an attack. 

-x-

Temari stepped out of the cave, wind-ruffled and supporting Shikamaru’s weight with an arm thrown over her shoulder, straight into the arms of a joint group of Suna and Konoha jounin. Temari stared at suddenly still group for a long moment before spying Kankuro and scowling deeply, “You’re late,” she snapped, her expression creasing with irritation. Mixed with the blood splatters and Shikamaru’s rather unsteady form, she made a rather terrifying, protective vision. 

“I was finding a good medic so you wouldn’t try to bite my head off,” Kankuro replied with a shrug, gesturing a group of the Suna jounin to go clean up and categorize all the (probably dead) missing nin in the cave. “See,” he added, pure younger brother sass as he gestured grandly at Sakura, who stood with the rest of the Konoha jounin.

“Goddamn it, Shikamaru,” Sakura said simply, hands firmly on her hips as she scanned the two. “You’re so stupid sometime,” she grumbled, approaching and briskly beginning to scan him with her chakra. “I’m trusting that all that blood isn’t yours?” She added, throwing Temari a dark glare. 

“I’m fine.” Temari grinned, her teeth flashing white against her dirty skin. “Just check over my crybaby.”

“It’s been ten years,” Shikamaru whined, wincing when Sakura prodded a particularly sensitive spot on his head. 

Rolling her eyes, Sakura let out a soft satisfied hum as her diagnostic showed that there were no dangerous internal injuries and most of the damage was superficial. “Be useful and help with the mess inside,” she called to the other Konoha jounin before gesturing Temari to lay Shikamaru down on the ground. “This shouldn’t take a moment,” she said to Temari, giving her friend a reassuring grin.

“More time for me to yell at him for getting kidnapped in the first place,” Temari said easily, gently laying Shikamaru down and stepping back as Sakura’s hands began glowing green. “I’ll be right back,” she added, before turning to her younger brother. With a jerk of his head, the two wandered a bit of a distance away, keeping a steady eye on the cave’s entrance and Sakura’s focused form. “I don’t suppose I’m not in any trouble?” Temari asked with very little hope.

Kankuro snorted and shook his head. “None officially,” he said easily, gently nudging his older sister when she blinked, clearly surprised. “Some teasing by your favorite brothers for all the sneaky paperwork you made us do,” he added, a sly grin pulling his lips. 

Temari blinked again, clearly touched. Her eyes jerked away when Sakura stopped glowing green and she straightened, focusing. Giving her little brother a fond smile, she clapped him on the back a little harder than usual then briskly approached Sakura again, trying to keep her worries to a minimum. 

“He’ll be fine,” Sakura said cheerfully, standing and dusting off her knees. “We might want to carry him back to Konoha just so he can rest but he’ll be okay.”

Temari felt her chest finally unknot from a tension she didn’t realize she had been carrying. “Oh good,” she said faintly. She locked her jaw and nodded firmly, meeting Shikamaru’s half-dazed, slightly confused smile. “Good.”

-x-

After Shikamaru finally woke up from a forced bedrest (apparently he had seen the state of everything after his weeklong kidnapping, attempted to start working immediately, and been immediately sedated by a unsympathetic Sakura), he, vaguely drugged and more hydrated than he had probably ever been in his life, smile soppily at Temari and declared cheerfully, “I love you so much and I’m gonna marry you if it kills me.”

“What,” Gaara demanded dangerously, sand already beginning to hiss out of his gourd. 

“Oh god,” Tsunade despaired, slapping a palm on her face and sincerely regretting becoming the Hokage as she imagined how much paperwork would be necessary for an interivillage marriage between the military commander of one and the sister of the Kage. “Oh god,” she repeated because she caught sight of Temari’s expression.

“I,” Shikamaru said slower, the words coming out like he was tasting each word as it left his tongue, “did not mean to say that out loud.” 

“What you’re not going to marry me?” Temari snapped before blushing even darker and hiding her face in her hands. “Wait, I mean, you’re pretty?” she squeaked, suddenly realizing how aggressive the first statement may have been. “Oh god, I said that out loud,” she mumbled, her voice sounding distinctly horrified. 

“You want to marry me?” Shikamaru squeaked, cheeks turning vividly red. 

“Well I’m obviously in love with you!” Temari blurted, glaring out from between her fingers, a mix of annoyance and mortification painting her cheeks red. “I mean I don’t clear out missing nin gangs for everyone,” she added, a lot more reluctantly. Despite her tone and her expression, her hand edged out and grasped tightly to his hand. 

Shikamaru immediately flipped his hand over and tangled their fingers together, expression turning soppy. “Well that’s good because I love you too,” he blurted, before smacking his other hand into his face in embarrassment. 

“Oh god, this actually hurts to watch,” Tsunade mused, staring at two of them, mildly horrified and enormously embarrassed on their behalf. “Just come to my office in like twenty minutes,” she added, realizing that the two were very much lost in their embarrassment and also each other’s eyes. With a sharp turn of her heels, she stalked out of the hospital room. She hastily returned and dragged out an ominously silent Gaara who continued staring dangerously at Shikamaru. 

“They’re horrifying,” she said with a sigh, marching to her office and refraining from dragging Gaara behind her simply because he was reluctantly following. “I can’t believe that said all that in front of an audience.”

“I don’t think they even remembered there was an audience,” Gaara said slowly, still scowling. He settled himself in a chair once they actually entered Hokage’s Office and crossed his arms. “I’m not pleased about this,” he added to the silence. 

“I’m not either,” Tsunade said with a groan, dropping into her chair and tilting her head back. “God the paperwork alone that’s going to happen with their marriage. I’m so glad I’ll be retired by the time they have kids.”

“Lady Tsunade,” Gaara said warningly, scowling at the reminder. 

“That will be a  _ you  _ problem,” she continued blithely, almost cheered by the thought of all the paperwork her successor would have to do that she would not have to do. 

“ _ Thank you _ , Lady Tsunade,” Gaara grumbled, almost slouching in his chair. 

Tsunade was starting to laugh when the door was opened and Shikamaru and Temari stepped into the office, cheeks still red and pinkies linked. “Ah yes, the other problem,” she mumbled, staring at Temari. She sighed and crossed her arms, glaring at Gaara. “What are all these mysterious missions for missing nin gang extermination that kept appearing at my desk and how do I get out of paying her for them?” she demanded, turning her sharp glare on Temari now. 

Temari cleared her throat uncomfortably, looking appropriately chagrined. “Well technically,” Shikamaru interrupted, jumping into the conversation in defense of his probably-future-fiancee. 

“Shut up Nara,” Tsunade snapped, keeping her eyes fixed on Temari. “I mean do you really need all the money? Aren’t you the daughter of a Kage?” Her voice was strangely flat but almost pleading. “God there were so many bounties,” she mused, frowning into the distance. 

“I’m well aware,” Gaara grumbled, straightening and glaring at Shikamaru and their linked pinkies. “Personally, I think I deserve to get paid after watching that nauseating display,” he added, turning a deadpan stare on his older sister.

“Oh my god, Gaara,” Temari grumbled, smacking a palm to her face, heat washing over her cheeks yet again. “We’ve literally been dating for years.”

“Ugh,” Gaara grunted, acting in a surprisingly childish, younger brother manner for being the venerated Kazekage. “What do you even see in him?” he mumbled, almost sulkily. 

“Ugh,” Temari said mockingly back, sticking her tongue out at her brother then straightening imperceptibly when Tsunade cleared her throat, looking entirely amused. 

“Oh right, it’s because you ‘he’s pretty,’” Gaara echoed mockingly with a delicate roll of his eyes. Tsunade smacked her palm into her face, sincerely tempted to reach for her alcohol stash and drink until this whole day was wiped from her memory. 

Temari turned bright red then straightened her spine, expression turning frosty over the mortification. “I will have you know,” she said stiffly, sniffing delicately, “that I am marrying him for his money,” Temari declared flatly before shouldering her tessen and flouncing out of the room in a rather impressive sulk.

“You know,” Shikamaru mused, staring after his girlfriend with not inconsiderably adoring eyes, “she always says that.” He laughed and rubbed the back of his head, meeting the incredulous stares of both the Kazekage and the Hokage. He breathed out and shrugged, returning to his usual slouched posture. “She says that but, honestly speaking, she probably has more money than me with all the scenic routes she takes between Suna and Konoha.”

“What?” the revered Hokage and the stoic Kazekage both demanded, flatly and still shocked.

“Uh, well...” Shikamaru trailed off and laughed sheepishly. “Sometimes, on the way back, she gets bored and takes the longer way.” When the two continued to stare at him incomprehensibly, Shikamaru blushed slightly, “The longer way which coincidentally tends to cross paths with various missing nin gangs that are filling up the Bingo Book and requests backlog.” When the two leaders continued their stare he shifted a little uncomfortably, “And then she tends to take them out and collect the bounty before finally heading back.” He laughed then gave them a rather sheepish smile, “She says that’s the only way she’ll indulge my laziness: by making trips to Suna safer.” His expression was besotted and rather goopy when he glanced back at the doorway, “Like I said, with the amount she’s making in bounties  _ I’m  _ going to be the one marrying for money.” He shrugged with an easy, even fonder smile then ambled out of the room.

“Disgusting,” Gaara finally declared, scrunching up his nose at the three (four?) declarations of love that he had been subjected to. He thought Temari’s shy obfuscation had been bad but Shikamaru’s schmoopy, fond voice had somehow been even worse. “I need bleach.”

“I have alcohol,” Tsunade immediately offered, her expression also screwed up in disgust. “Can you believe that boy is supposed to be my military counsel?” she added, already pulling out a sake bottle and handing over a cup to Gaara.

“Disgusting,” Gaara declared again, gratefully accepting the sake that Tsunade pours for him. He quickly goes to return the favor but is rebuffed when Tsunade merely pushed that bottle into his hands and pulled out another bottle, drinking straight from the neck. “Ah.”

“I deserve this,” Tsunade growled, cradling her alcohol close. 

Gaara sighed and quickly finished his own cup before also picking up the bottle. “I don’t disagree,” he admitted, the weight of resignation hanging off his words. The two shared a commiserating look and clink bottles before throwing back another swallow. 


End file.
